a looped wire through the mass
horizontally along lines previously scribed, or, for a standard sized
slab, the wire may be a fixture in a box-like arrangement, which is
passed along the top of the soap, and the distance of the wire from the
top of the box will be the thickness of the slab (Fig. 11).

[Illustration: FIG. 11.--Banjo slabber.]

All tallow soaps should be slabbed whilst still warm, cut into bars, and
open-piled immediately; if this type of soap is cold when slabbed its
appearance will be very much altered.

_Barring._--The slabs are out transversely into bars by means of the
looped wire, or more usually by a machine (Fig. 12), the lower framework
of which, containing wires, is drawn through the soap placed on the
base-board; the framework is raised, and the bars fall upon the shelf,
ready for transference into piles. It has long been the custom in
England to cut bars of soap 15 inches long, and weighing 3 lb. each, or
37-1/2 bars of soap to the cwt., but in recent years a demand has arisen
for bars of so many various weights that it must be sometimes a
difficult matter to know what sizes to stock.

In another type of barring machine, portions of the slab, previously cut
to size, are pushed against a framework carrying wires, and the bars
slide along a table ready for handling (Fig. 13).

In cutting machines, through which "washer" household soap is being
passed, the bar is pushed at right angles through another frame
containing wires, which divides it into tablets; these may be received
upon racks and are ready for drying and stamping. It is needless to say
that the slabs and tablets are cut with a view to reducing the amount of
waste to the lowest possible limit. Such a machine, made by E. Forshaw &
Son, Ltd., is shown in Fig. 14.

[Illustration: FIG. 12.--Barring machine.]

[Illustration: FIG. 13.--Bar-cutting machine.]

[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Tablet-cutting machine.]

_Open- and Close-piling._--As remarked previously, tallow soaps should
be cut whilst warm, and the bars "open-piled," or stacked across each
other in such a way that air has free access to each bar for a day. The
bar of soap will skin or case-harden, and next day may be "close-piled,"
or placed in the storage bins, where they should remain for two or three
weeks, when they will be in perfect condition for packing into boxes
ready for distribution.

[Illustration: FIG. 15.--Soap stamp.]

_Drying._--"Oil soaps," as soaps of the